Reunion at Bowes…

Today is the day we are meeting up with old college friend, Sue, back at the Bowes Museum.  She took this photo of Bessie driving majestically through the gates!

It was good to see her again and we wasted no time in getting into the café, where we took up residence for a good three hours!

We had an excellent lunch and talked the hind leg off the proverbial donkey…

Just as I’m sure the staff probably thought we were there for the night, we made our way out into the daylight and Sue and I posed beside the stone mythical creature on the terrace.

Waving goodbye, we set off for our next campsite at Thornhill Farm in Goathland on the North York Moors.

We, of course, knew all about the Tour de France starting in Leeds on the 5^th and we noticed various yellow bikes at strategic points on our journey.

We went via Northallerton, a market town that we used to stay in back in the 70s with Sally and Robert.  The Golden Lion used to be owned by Trust House Forte and they did spring bargain breaks when children would go free.  We were pleased to see that it still looked very smart (it was used as a location in the old black and white war-time film ‘The Way to the Stars’ with Michael Redgrave).

We had remembered the broad main street as being handsome and uncluttered and it was a bit of a shock to see it was now full of diagonally parked cars on both sides and that the council were even charging for the privilege!  Inevitably the shops were those that could be seen in any town up and down the country.  Northallerton seems sadly to have lost its identity.

The countryside was becoming more hilly as we approached the North York Moors.

Suddenly we found ourselves in Goathland, through which we had travelled on the North York Moors Railway nearly 40 years ago.  What I had forgotten, however, was that since then Goathland had been commandeered by ITV in the 90s as the location of their hit soap on Sunday nights, Heartbeat.  We weren’t regular viewers of the show but when I saw the name ‘Aidensfield’ on the pub it rang a bell.  The sight of the little 60s police car outside the shop confirmed it!

Just around the corner was the farm – we were sharing the large field with just two other motorhomes.  Perfect.